1st Ld Writethru: China's Xi lashes out at political cliques, election fraud

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has lashed out at graft and political conspiracy in the Party and called for an uncorrupt political ecology.

Xi made the remarks during the sixth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee last week when explaining two documents on the discipline of the Party that were approved at the session, namely the norms of political life in the Party under current conditions, and the regulation on intra-Party supervision.

The full text of the two documents, as well as Xi's explanation, were published Wednesday.

In his comments, Xi said political life in the Party has been good in general terms, but there were also prominent problems in urgent need of addressing.

The top CPC leader pointed out the questionable faith and loyalty of some Party members, including senior ones.

He cited a number of faults among such members, including: lax discipline, detachment from the people, arbitrariness and inaction, acts of individualism, factionalism, money worshipping and violations linked to formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance.

Nepotism and election fraud have endured while some Party officials sold positions of power and bartered promotions, Xi said, adding that power abuse, corruption as well as legal and disciplinary violations have been spreading.

In particular, a handful of senior Party officials, overcome by their political cravings and lust for power, have resorted to political conspiracies by working with ostensible obedience, while forming cliques to pursue selfish interests, he said.

These acts have severely eroded the Party's ethical foundations, undermined its unity, and impaired the intra-Party political environment and the party's public image, Xi said.

He went on to list Zhou Yongkang, Bo Xilai, Guo Boxiong, Xu Caihou and Ling Jihua as examples of such behavior, citing both their economic and political misdeeds.

Xi said that to rectify these problems, the CPC would have to cultivate a clean and positive political ecology.

"Like natural ecology, political ecology is also vulnerable to pollution," he said. "Once problems emerge, we have to pay a huge price to restore it to its original state." Endi